GET RID OF SHADOWS

For long we have been so caught up in the old traditional way of doing things that we have ignored the substance. We are taken up by the“how” and have long forgotten the “what”.

This the apostle Paul calls shadows. 

“ Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days; which are shadows of the things to come, but the body is of Christ” Colossians 2: 16-17 (KJV)

Look at the 8 hours working day. The traditional managers were long stuck to working between 9am and 5pm till the Americans invented the flexible working time prior to the industrialization period enabling workers work 8 hours a day of their convenience, this over time has proven to be one of the work styles that have increased productivity among the work force today. The beauty is that it maintains 8 hours of work in a day allowing the worker do it conveniently. Who wouldn’t want convenience? I guess that explains the high productivity levels among those subject to this work style.

However some proponents are still opposed to transformation, probably because we consider it applicable only to top management. Let’s ton it down a little. In regards to driving, I was raised to always ignite the engine, let loose the handbrake and then change gears. Now from my experience, the vehicle has never failed to move even when I loosen the handbrake after changing the gears. The Substance in this case is the car moving while the shadow is at what point the handbrake needs to be loosened. We therefore need to get rid of the shadows.

Get rid of shadows

So what is it about these traditional work styles that blinds us to the substance which is efficiency? Now, I am not ignorant of the technicalities that come with the adjusting work styles and work environments neither am I against any organizational culture, nonetheless I am aware of the returns accruing to openness to innovation and also greatly conscious of how crippling rigidity can be.

Therefore let us shine a light into our lives and work styles and ask ourselves what styles we have been so attached to for long and negated the substance which is effectiveness. This I believe is the first step to improvement of our work in regards to both production and interest.